Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software robot that helps humans automate a process. In other words, it helps automate daily, repetitive, and rule-based tasks similar to human employees thereby making work faster, more accurate, and more efficient. RPA has no working time limitation and can handle global affairs 24 hours a day.
People often mix up the meaning of RPA and AI because of some similarities they have in common. Either is best not to work in isolation as they complement each other to successfully carry out tasks. AI can help RPA automate tasks more fully and handle more complex use cases. RPA also enables AI insights to be actioned on more quickly instead of waiting on manual implementations. RPA is process driven while AI is data driven. RPA bots can only follow the processes defined by an end user, while AI bots use machine learning to recognize patterns in data, in particular unstructured data, and learn over time. In other words, AI is intended to simulate human intelligence, while RPA is solely for replicating human-directed tasks. The use of artificial intelligence and RPA tools minimize the need for human intervention, the way in which they automate processes is different.
INDUSTRIES THAT NEED RPA/AI
- Banking & Finance: As a result of the huge amount of account information, documents, and transactional files of countless customers, RPA/AI technology simplifies the processing time while reducing the chances of errors. It also helps banks ensure that customers’ queries get quick and prompt responses. RPA can also help banks to increase their compliance standards by increasing the accuracy of processes and making the audit more convenient.
- Telecom: Telecom providers often struggle to manage their data and streamline their workflow. There are large volumes of rule-based operational processes in the telecom sector. By automating these tasks through RPA implementation, companies witness a two-fold increase in employee productivity and better customer relationships. It allowed them to deliver a more personalized service to the customers.
- Healthcare: During the Covid19 lockdown, most hospitals saw the need to automate and upgrade their process from the traditional paper method to a digitalized method. From scheduling appointments to processing bills, the benefits of RPA in healthcare are many. It helps simplify and hasten processes and allow doctors and staff to focus on better serving the patients. Scheduling patient appointments and their data management is a repetitive and complex task that can be made better with RPA. Handling the administrative side of things also results in a better patient experience that makes them loyal to the healthcare service provider. With these benefits and time saved, doctors can utilize the time to efficiently treat more patients.
- Utilities: Utility companies have to regularly process tremendous transactions that can be automated by utilizing robotic process automation services. From PHCN to DSTV and other utility establishments, utility companies have been able to eradicate queues by simplifying bills payments. The new technology has also helped to effectively handle customer queries better.
- Insurance: Insurance companies have to process a big volume of claims on a daily basis. Automating back-office processes and data management for claims processing becomes easier with robotic process automation solutions. It also helps brokers in the comparative analysis by offering insurance options to users based on certain specific parameters.
- Education: The education industry regularly faces staffing challenges and high costs of administration. More often than not, the operational tasks in educational institutes are fixed and occur at different intervals. By implementing RPA, the education sector can reduce the dependence of management on the staff. Apart from that, institutes that cannot afford enterprise software, RPA can help them in completing tasks while they are teaching the students. Tasks like new application fulfillment, vendor management, ordering, etc., can be delegated to RPA services.
- Hospitality: RPA technology can help smoothen the booking process and undertake back-office tasks, leaving more time for hotel staff to concentrate on customers. RPA bots can provide answers to common customer queries and enable the staff to focus on activities that can improve the customer experience. On top of that, processing invoices in hotels takes a lot of time. RPA implementation allows the hotel to generate quick bills and receive payments without making the customer wait for a long time.
For businesses, incorporating robotic process automation into the KYC process will minimize errors, which would otherwise require unpleasant interactions with customers to resolve the problems. It will not only accelerate customer onboarding but also enhance customer experience. It also has a systematic way of handling its allocated tasks which will increase output quality by eliminating errors and ensuring efficiency and as a result, people do not need to waste time and energy on routine duties.
Article Submitted by Segun Shogbanmu, Chief Strategy Officer, Prunedge.